below: More words, this time “It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood.” A quote from the TV show, ‘Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood’ along with a picture of Daniel Striped Tiger, a hand puppet from the same show.

below: Shafia Shaik working on her mural. The word GLOW has been cut off. The finished work was signed as EWOK project standing for Equity for Women of (K)olour.

below: A mural by muisca. The finished mural has green leaves and vines on both sides of the face.

From the monochrome past to the coloured present – there’s a new mural on the corner of St. Clair West and Spring Grove painted by Christiano De Araujo. Old black and white photos of the area and its people provide the background for a group of ten very modern and diverse people.

below: The top photo is 1732 St. Clair West in 1911.

below: On the top, very left corner, the black and white photo is a street scene – It’s St Clair Ave looking east from Prescott Avenue, under the railway bridge and beyond. The bridge was built in 1931 and the photo was taken shortly after that.

I had heard about this event but I was away in mid-August which was the week that it occurred. I knew that it was on a lane off McCaul but I couldn’t remember where. McCaul isn’t that long so I started walking north at Queen. At Dundas, this is what I saw:

below: The edge of a mural by Emily May Rose beckons you to come and take a closer look.

I knew that I was in the right place when I saw the word (is it a word?) #womxnpaintto painted on the ground. So I followed the little yellow arrow and walked behind the buildings to a lane running east/west behind Dundas Street.

below: The mural is higher than the fence by quite a bit so as I walked beside the fence I was able to take this picture.

below: Three murals on a double garage. On the right is a woman with blue and orange rays by @dbetty13 (aka Désiré Betty). The other woman, the one with the wild turquoise hair was painted by toest (aka Sarah Gilmore). On the side of the building, partially obscured by the car is a mural painted by @nightarcade (aka Sarah Cannon).

below: An attempt to get a closer look at the side of the garage (with St. Patricks RC church in the background).

below: A fence with some murals – starting at the end with ” What You Do is Magic” by Shelby McLeod. Magic hands perhaps.

Caterpillars and butterflies is the theme of the latest laneway painting project. A year ago, Nick Sweetman led a group of street artists who painted garage doors in a lane near Garrison Creek park with pictures of butterflies. These murals appeared in blog post in June 2017

This year’s project was similar. Many of the same artists were involved again this year. They used garages, fences and gates in a lane near Felstead Park (a block south of Greenwood subway station) as their canvas. Once again, the theme was butterflies as it too was part of the David Suzuki Foundation’s butterflyways project. This time, a similar blue background was used in all the murals which has given it a more unified appearance.

The project was curated by Nick Sweetman and it had the support of Start aka StreetARToronto

below: Felstead Park, by @braes_ack

below: In the shadow of the weed are the letters CTR

below: Mural signed by Kehoe, the face of David Suzuki

below: Green and yellow toadstools by mska

below: Mural by @oriah_scott

below: butterfly among the pink and red flowers, by P.S. aka Phillip Saunders

below: A sombre dark piece (is it finished?) by @poserabm

below: Three butterflies by Serina

below: Collaboration – A monarch painted by Nick Sweetman and a wonderful rose by Wales

below: A bright and busy mural by Spyone and Tensoe

below: The hookah-smoking caterpillar from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is crawling across the fence. Painted by elicser

below: Red panda out on a limb, perhaps chasing the butterfly, by Ted Hamer (@The1astRonin)

below: A butterfly in the garden; the work of Anya Mielniczek

below: Two flowers, one pink and one blue, by Chris Perez

below: It looks a lot like a skull on the back of this butterfly painted by @cmazzulla aka Christine Mazzulla

below: A curled up caterpillar in pink and black, very larger than life!, by Spud.

below: By Dezed, a butterly, mushrooms, and a bit of water

below: Reaching out to the butterfly, giving the butterfly a helping hand, painted by @drippin_soul (Kalkidan Assefa)

below: On the right, Emma, the property owner’s dog who died recently. Nick Sweetman painted the dog while @mr_tensoe2 painted the dog’s name

As part of a larger mural project in David French and Barbara Barrett Lanes (near Bloor and Bathurst), elicser has painted another mural with more of the kinds of people that he is known for painting. Every day people doing every day things – with some emphasis on musicians and the people who listen to them.

For this post I’ve combined photos that were taken back in mid-September on the weekend that the ‘Wall Expressions’ project was started with those that I took a few weeks later. ‘Wall Expressions’ was a StreetARToronto project to paint/repaint garages in David French Lane.

More of the bents holding up the road that passes over Underpass Park in Corktown are in the process of being painted. Back in 2015, the bents and pillars on the west side of Lower River Street were painted as part of the Pan Am games preparations. The latest mural project involves the bents closer to St. Lawrence Street.

below: Looking east towards Lower River Street, skateboarders in the park behind a mural by Chief Ladybird and Aura. In the background is a pink elephant by Christopher Ross.

below: And the other. The mural is accompanied by a Robert Browning quote: “Grow old with me, the best is yet to be.”

below: At the far west end, a gruesome spike being plunged into a heart.

The project is managed by Mural Routes and is part of the StreetARToronto Partnership Program in collaboration with the Corktown Residents and Business Association, the City of Toronto Parks Department, and Relay 2017 – Friends of the PanAm Path.

below: Just starting, background figures in white

***

This is the fourth blog post about the murals at Underpass Park. Others are:

Garrison Creek park is a small strip of green between the railway tracks an alley of garages. Many of the garage doors were painted last weekend with murals all on the theme of butterflies. There are about 30 paintings and they are the work of a number of different street artists. The project was curated by Nick Sweetman and it is part of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway project; StreetARToronto was also involved.

If you don’t like pictures of butterfly murals, I suggest that you skip this post because I’m sharing photos of a lot of the garage doors! In no particular order here they are: